Sensation and perception Flashcards
sensation
the conversion of physical stimuli into neurological signals
perception
processing of sensory information to make sense of its significance
sensory receptors
respond to stimuli and trigger electrical signals
projection areas
these are parts of the brain that sensory stimuli are transmitted to in order to analyze the sensory stimuli
proximal stimulus
this is what you actually perceive
what excites the receptors on our eyes, leading to visual perception.
ex. the photons of light that are reflected from a tree to tell us its a tree
distal stimulus
this is the physical object in the external world that is reflecting the light
this would be the tree we we see
retinal disparity
where the image from each eye is compared and the difference between the two images in where things are located gives your brain info on the depth of something
this is important for distinguishing distance of an object, the greater the difference between the two images that the eyes perceive, the more the body perceives the image as being close to you but far away the eyes will have similar images
this is a binocular cue
convergence
is the degree to which your eyes bend or rotate to look at something, which tells your brain how close or far away it is. Things that are closer require our eyes to bend inward more to focus it, and so if your eyes bend more, your brain knows it’s closer to you
this is a binocular cue
motion parallax
which says that things closer to you move faster than those farther away (on a road trip the road moves much much faster than the clouds
this is a monocular cue
relative size
(things closer to you are bigger than those far away, like a skyscraper),
also relatice height of objects tells us how close
this is a monocular cue
lights and shade
(basically shading gives you ideas of form and depth)
this is a monocular cue
interposition
(things that are partially covered by an object are behind that object)
this is a monocular depth cue
